If You Are Thinking About Buying A 597 Read This First

Let me start by saying I finally crossed over into the semi-auto world six weeks ago. I'm strictly a bolt and pump action shooter. I went to Cabela's and purchased a Remington 597 LS HB .22 LR (their target rifle version). I also purchased a target 4 - 16 power scope. Being a shooting enthusiast and hunter I thought it would be fun to rap off some rounds at the shooting range.

Fun, that’s what I had in mind. This gun is crap. Sorry all you 597 nuts out there but its just true.

WEEK ONE:
First round in the chamber I’m all enthused ready to zero in that new scope. I aim, breath, and squeeze. "tick". MISFIRE! Well this is no way to start my FUN time. I pull back on the bolt chamber another round. It shoots. I'm relieved but not for long. I loaded the clip with five rounds. The rifle only shot four rounds and only cycled three rounds. One round jammed in the chamber. The last round did not load into the chamber at all because the bolt locked open. For the next 100 rounds this occurs over and over. I never was able to fire an entire clip with out a problem. Misfires, bolt locking open to soon, jams. I'm still optimistic though; I chalk it up to bad ammunition and vow to try others. I take the rifle home and completely disassemble and clean it.

WEEK TWO:
After stopping at Gander to purchase five different kinds of ammo, I eagerly drive to the shooting range again. I load up the magazines and get ready to have FUN. Once again I aim, breath, and squeeze. "tick". MISFIRE! ***! My FUN IS nothing of the sort because all five different ammo's misfire, jam, and do not load i.e...bolt locks open prematurely. I was able to zero in the scope using Remington’s Target Rifle ammo. A bull every time at 25 yards. The other four ammo's were all over the place. Satisfied that I had accomplished something, I was still optimistic. After all, most 22's need to be fired allot before they function reliably. So, once again I take it home and thoroughly clean and disassembly the gun.

WEEK THREE:
Again a trip to Gander and more ammo to try plus a box of the target ammo. Once again I was treated to the FUN of misfires, jams, premature bolt locking open and horrible groupings if you could call them groupings. The target ammo though, bull every time at 25 yards. At this point I have fired almost 500 rounds through this gun it should be loosening up by now. Severely disappointed, I repeat the cleaning ritual.

WEEK FOUR:
More ammo more misfires, jams, etc, etc, etc. At one point I almost threw it in the garbage can. WOW what FUN. I bring home my SINGLE SHOT SEMI AUTO 597 and clean and curse the piece of crap vowing to destroy it if it doesn't start working. (Yes I was talking to it)

WEEK FIVE:
After reading some blogs on RimfireCentral.com. I try all of the suggested fixes for sticky mags, bent bolt rails, and over oiled receivers. AHHH now she will work! So off to the range I go. Well guess what. I aim, breath, and squeeze. "tick". MISFIRE! Then jam, then bolt locked open prematurely. I could not even get through ONE Magazine without problems. OHHHH this truly is FUNNNN. YEAH FUNNY HOW I GOT SCREWED OUT OF $303.

WEEK SIX:
I sold the piece of crap back to the dealer.

Listen guys. If you read all the comments here and on the internet about this rifle they are all bad. Sticky magazines, bad magazines, misfires, jams, over torqued bolt rails. Why do we tolerate this? Yes it shoots a great group with target ammo only!

My definition of a dangerous weapon is a weapon that does not perform as it was designed to. THIS IS A DANGEROUS WEAPON!

If want to buy a 597 don't. If you own one return it! Send a message to Remington that we will not tolerate spending our hard earned money on a weapon that is dangerous.

I know there will be those that claim their 597 is fine. But before you buy one do the research. Compare the complaints about the 597 to that of any other semi auto .22 on the market. I guarantee you 597's are superior in number for unsatisfied customers.

P.S. I lost $70 on the deal do to All Firearms Sales being final. So the dealer would only give me 75% back.

WEEK ONE:
First round in the chamber I’m all enthused ready to zero in that new scope. I aim, breath, and squeeze. "tick". MISFIRE! Well this is no way to start my FUN time. I pull back on the bolt chamber another round. It shoots. I'm relieved but not for long. I loaded the clip with five rounds. The rifle only shot four rounds and only cycled three rounds. One round jammed in the chamber. The last round did not load into the chamber at all because the bolt locked open. For the next 100 rounds this occurs over and over. I never was able to fire an entire clip with out a problem. Misfires, bolt locking open to soon, jams. I'm still optimistic though; I chalk it up to bad ammunition and vow to try others. I take the rifle home and completely disassemble and clean it.

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[Silly Southern Mechanic's voice] Well, thar's yer problem! You was usin' clips! Ain't no modern Remington use clips in the gun no more sonny; them's all use magazines, or 'mags' for short.
:09:

Sounds like you have a problem with yore new 22 !!!!!! I read where Remington has done 2 upgrades to this rifle for said reasons or similar reasons.
So you may have one of the first batch that came out and not 1 of the 2 upgraded one's.
I may of read that here somewhere, I'm sorry I don't remember where...A.H

Sounds like you got the lemon of all lemons! I have heard several complaints about those. I don't think I will be getting one any time soon.

I have a couple Ruger 10/22s that I love. After a couple hundred rounds my target rifle will start to have some feeding issues as I have a target chamber and barrel - it fouls quickly. My regular hunting/normal 10/22 rarely has any issues. If you haven't bought another .22, try one of those. Also, the cheap Marlin Model 60's are surprisingly accurate and dependable!

Hey...my 597 has feed problems; maybe because of the clips or another anomoly I found. And that is the ejection lever inside the bolt was sticking so I sanded it down, and the recess it is in. I also found a hole in the bottom of the bolt right underneath the cavity the ejection lever sits in. So I picked out the rough edges of the hole maybe this is the anomoly in mine only.......thought somebody should know.

cant beat the 10/22, ive fired 1000's of rounds threw my fathers and never had a problem. plus there is so many aftermarket parts for them that you can build almost what ever you want out of one. i've also shot my friends marlins and those are awsome to.

i have heard good and bad things about this gun. despite that i brought one at walmart for $195. i know mine has not had a misfire in the 300 some od rounds i have put trough it. the clip works fine and as long as its lightly lubed it will work flawlessly. you have to give the bolt a tug if your loaded with the full ten rounds but thats it

I don't want to be a jerk on my first post but I have owned at least 4 597's in different trim in 22LR and also the 22 magnum version of the 597. Not a single one of them gave any problems in spite of being used very frequently (a brick of 500 rounds per weekend). All of these guns saw that level of use and none jammed and all proved extremely accurate. The 22 magnum would print .80" groups at 100 yards (scoped rifle, obviously), and the 22 long rifle versions exhibited better inherent accuracy than most 22 semi-autos. These all were the version with the plastic magazines and, again, not a problem. They even saw use in Northern Wisconsin in the middle of winter (Jan.-Feb. near Tomahawk) on rabbit hunts and functioned in the cold. Heck, I even tried to induce a jam in the 22 magnum by alternating CCI maxi-mag +V, Federal 50 grain, Winchester Varmint loads (the kind you used to get in the 200 round closeable, reusable plastic pack), and standard Federal rounds, I was not able to MAKE the gun jam no matter what combo I used. My experience with the 22LR versions was much the same. I am sorry to hear you got a bad gun but, as mentioned in other posts, it had to be a lemon as I have researched and discovered many others who have had favorable experiences with the 597 as well.

mrc_wi was obviously not the brightest person, in that he went 5 weeks and then sold it. Remington has a very good customer service system, and he should have gone a few days and then called Remington.

FYI, I own 2 Remington 597's, and hope to get another soon. They are my favorite guns to shoot. I've never seen a .22LR that is more accurate. I threw a pretty cheap 4x scope on it, and I think I could out shoot almost all other semi-auto .22's out there (I've beat a Ruger 10/22 before a few times, not sure about other .22's).

Anyway, I know Ruger and Marlin make very fine .22's, and Savage also makes a pretty good one, especially for the money, but I don't see why anyone should bash the Remington M597. Get the 3rd gen magazines (I can't imagine any 2nd gens still out there), and you should be shooting great.

My 597 is at about 3000 rounds. It failed to feed the first 10. I replaced the magazine with 2 new ones (Remington sent both for free), and I've now gone 2990 without a FTF or FTE.

I too am hating my 597. I purchased it new last weekend. I took it out the the range, oiled up the rails a bit and loaded her up. Was getting at least one misfire in every 10 rounds. I also noticed the windage screw for the rear sight was so loose that the rear sight was litterally flopping around. Great quality control. I ran 200 rounds through it hoping it would break in. Then headed home disgusted. I took it apart, cleaned it, and hoped the cleaning/lubing would do the trick.

After mounting a scope, I headed back to the range today and ran another 150 rounds through. The problem is not only still there, it's gotten worse. It jams on the second round out of the magazine almost every magazine full. It seems to not be cocking after firing and ejecting the first round.

After racking the slide to eject the misfire, it will fire the next round normally and the FTF's are much less common. If you load the magazine with only two rounds, it will still FTF on round number two most of the time. Interestingly, even though it doesn't seem to be cocking or firing on that second round, the ejected round has a small dent from the firing pin.

It's also developed two new problems! The last shot bolt hold open is failing half of the time. That's just a minor annoyance, but still frustrating on a new rifle.

The sencond new problem: SLAMFIRES. After a little over 100 rounds today: popop. I'd never experienced this before and thought I might be imagining it. A magazine or two later, it happened again, then a third time.

Totally frustrated, I headed home. Guess I'll have to spend my lunch half-hour talking to Remington on the phone. Then I'll have to ship it to them on my dime, wait forever to for repairs, and maybe have a functioning firearm down the road. I wish I had sprung the extra $40 for the 10/22. I'm almost tempted to cut my losses and put it in the closet.

Unless customer service really does something above and beyond, I don't think I'll ever buy another Remington. I'm not saying all Remingtons are crap but mine is. Worse than the Mossberg 377 plinkster I got at a pawnshop for $25 in 1988.

i bought a 597 at a pawn shop for $120 and love it. right at first it did want to cock right so i cleaned and oiled it and it worked fine. got a bsa 4x32 .22 scope on and use it for shooting birds. never had any feed problems. have told some of my friend they should also get one. great rifle very accurate.